Freight Futures daily curve: 9/10

The September National contract (FUT.VNU201909) settled 0.5% lower on Monday at $1.472 per mile, driven by a 1.1% or $0.02 drop in the spot month East regional contract (FUT.VEU201909) to $1.703. The West regional (FUT.VWU201909) and South regional (FUT.VSU201909) contracts finished the day mostly unchanged, at $1.486 and $1.226, respectively. The East region was heavily influenced by the removal of Dorian “risk premium” from the CHI to ATL lane (VCA). The spot contract (FUT.VCA201909) declined nearly 3% or $0.067 to $2.21, leading the rest of the VCA forward curve (FWD.VCA) lower.

The VCA lane wasn’t the only story in the East. Both the PHI to CHI lane (VPC) and ATL to PHI lane (VAP) continued to strengthen from last week. Driven by freight flows into the east coast ports, the spot VPC contract (FUT.VPC201909) closed up 0.5% at $0.959 and the spot VAP contract (FUT.VAP201909) finished 0.26% higher at $1.941. In the West, a 0.1% gain in the SEA to LAX contract (FUT.VSL201909) was offset by a 0.1% decline in the LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS201909). In the South, both the LAX to DAL (FUT.VLD201909) and DAL to LAX (FUT.VDL201909) contracts declined by 0.2%.